RegBak95 - Register backup system for Windows 95/98

RegBak95 is a small utility that I've written after I lost part of my own registers and had to reinstall quite a lot of programs. It let you create backups of Windows 95/98 register files (USER.DAT & SYSTEM.DAT) in a very intuitive way, keeping up to 10 full backups and updating them on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. When all available slots for backups are filled, the oldest slot is reused. Other nice features, together with a user friendly interface, make of this program a must have.

Type

Utility for Dos/Windows 95/98; freeware.

Version

1.2 / english.

Description

I think that Windows 95/98 registers are a very weak point of the OS; if they get partially corrupted, chances are that you must re-install a lot of things and keep discovering, many days after, little quirks deriving by the absence of some info within them. Of course, if they get totally corrupted you won't even get into the OS.

That's where RegBak95 ease the pain.

It lets you create backups of Windows 95/98 register files (up to 10 sets, or slots), whether automatically or by warning the user or showing its menu at every startup, once a day, once a week or once a month.
RegBak95 re-uses slots as needed, by overwriting the oldest backup.
Register files are kept in compressed archives, which can be restored or deleted as needed from within RegBak95.

Requirements

• Windows 95;
• PKZIP/PKUNZIP from PKWARE, Inc., or
• Info zip/unzip.

Features

RegBak95 is structured in various menus; at any time, just one menu is active and its window can be positioned anywhere on the screen by clicking on the frame, moving the mouse and releasing the button; RegBak95 remembers the position for each window between different sessions.

The setup menu include seven options:

1. Copy request: this setting determines how often RegBak95 will prompt the user to backup the registers; the options are:

• everytime: each time you start Windows 95, the operation selected in the Autorun setting (see below) will be performed;
• daily: the operation will take place only the first time of the day you load the OS;
• weekly: same as above, but the operation is performed again onlyafter 7 days;
• monthly: same as above, but the operation is performed again only after 30 days.

2. Number of slots: the number of slots determines how many backup sets RegBak95 will keep; when all slots are full and a new backup is requested, the slot containing the oldest backup is re-used.
3. Autorun: this option sets the operation that should be automatically performed by RegBak95 when it is executed with parameter '/A' and register backup is needed. The possible values are:

• Start backup: registers are automatically copied and then the OS loads as usual (no user confirmation is required);
• Wait, exit: a message is displayed, asking the user to press any key within a certain amount of time to enter RegBak95's menu; if no key is pressed, the program exits automatically and then the OS loads as usual;
• Wait, backup: a message is displayed, asking the user to press any key within a certain amount of time to skip register backup; if no key is pressed, registers are copied and then the OS loads as usual;
• Show menu: RegBak95's menu is displayed and the user must explicitly exit to let the OS continue loading.

4. Timeout: this option can be changed only if Autorun is set to Wait, exit or Wait, backup; the value entered in this option determines how much time RegBak95 waits for the user keypress; allowed values are from 2 to 30 seconds.
5. ZIP type: this option can be used to set the type of (de)compressor which must be used; as different parameters are requested according to the type of compressor, this piece of information is required by RegBak95 to know how to invoke the executables selected with the following options. Whenever you switch the type, RegBak95 will search again the executables of the new type in the path.
6. (PK)ZIP path/(PK)UNZIP path: the first time that RegBak95 is run, it will try to find in the Dos path where PKZIP.EXE and PKUNZIP.EXE reside (or ZIP.EXE/ZIP32.EXE and UNZIP.EXE/UNZIP32.EXE, if ZIP type is Info ZIP); you can enter manually where these two programs are located by selecting the corresponding option in this menu. While entering the pathname, use TAB to self-complete directory and file name (as in Unix).
7. Windows path: here you can specify where your register files are found (usually C:\WINDOWS); you can change the path to something else, for example if you want to test safely all the functions of RegBak95.

All settings are automatically saved when you update them and when you exit the program.

The main menu of RegBak95 contains 4 other options, besides Setup:

1. Backup registers: when you select the option, you will be asked to confirm the backup. If you answer 'Yes', the first available slot or the oldest backup will be used to store the new archive, which will be created in the directory of REGBAK95.EXE by spawning the compressor with the proper parameters.
2. Restore registers: when you select the option, a list will appear, containing all the occupied slots sorted by date and time of backup. After selecting one of the sets and confirming with 'Yes', current registers will be overwritten with stored registers, by spawning the decompressor with the proper parameters. The restore is safe, integrity-wise: before actually overwriting existing registers, the integrity of the slot will be checked; if the integrity check fails, no restore will be performed.
3. Delete slot: this option is selectable only when at least one slot is full. When you select the option, a list will appear, containing all the occupied slots sorted by date and time of backup. After selecting one of the sets and confirming with 'Yes', that backup will be deleted both from this list and from the disk, freeing up the space used.
4. Exit program: I guess you can figure out this by yourself.. :)

RegBak95 checks the date at startup and warns the user if system date precedes the date of the last backup; this is done as a security measure since only the date and time of the slots are used to identify each backup.

Download

Download RegBak95 (version 1.2, english)

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